The present invention relates to the manufacture of plastic objects. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of treating porous plastic objects and products produced thereof.
Plastic objects are commonly produced using rapid prototyping techniques for testing purposes before the more expensive permanent mold is made for mass production purposes. Different techniques and apparatus are available for producing rapid prototypes. The prototypes produced are typically made of metallic composites or plastic. For plastic prototypes, acrylic, ABS and nylon are common materials used.
Nylon prototypes are typically produced from powdered nylon using techniques such as selective laser sintering, while acrylic and ABS prototypes are produced by stereolithography and fused deposition method respectively. The prototypes produced have a high level of accuracy, but often assume a rough, mat appearance that usually does not look like their injection moulded counterparts.
Injection moulded plastic, on the other hand, may be produced with the relevant dyes added into the material for molding, and the high molding temperature and pressure causes complete melting and mixing of the plastic and dye to form a non-porous, solid part. If texturing is desired of the part, chemical etching or sanding is usually performed on the injection mold itself, such that the desired texture is automatically created on the surface of the mold during the molding process.
There is, however, presently no techniques to improve the appearance of parts produced by rapid prototyping technique (e.g. to provide surface texturing or colouring). It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for improving the characteristics of porous plastic parts.